“Bah!” “Humbug,” and “Scrooge” are all readily recognized words anytime of year, but especially in December. And, for good reason – as they are connected to a work called A Christmas Carol.
Charles Dickens on this date, 12/19/1843, had published A Christmas Carol (publishers: Chapman and Hall), what is in literature known as a novella (nō vel’ lä). One source says he didn’t start it until in October of that year and did not finish it until the early days of December. Dickens divided his story, in line with his title, into five stanzas or what most would label chapters.
Scrooge, his main character, has a biblical word of his first name, Ebenezer. And though A Christmas Carol is not a Christian story as such, it seems to have helped make readers/hearers less selfish on and near Christmas. Two fellow writers, Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Carlyle, both seem to have been more give to generiosity after the story appeared. Reportedly as a result of it, a Boston manufacturer closed his factory for Christmas Day and gave a turkey to each employee. Even the queen of Norway, later, is said to have given gifts to some crippled children marked “With Tiny Tim’s Love.”
A Christmas Carol is still popular and is reported to have never gone out of print.
Separate-Holy 